THE SCANDAL inside the Department of Veterans Affairs got worse Monday, raising fresh doubts about whether the agency can be salvaged without extensive reform.

Indeed, it may be time to start talking seriously about folding the existing VA system into other health-care systems in Savannah and across the country — and not just to eliminate costly duplication.

Instead, the closer that management is to the people who are treated, the less likely that serious problems will be swept under the carpet.

It seems some VA officials have been doing their best work with a broom.

On Monday, a federal special council alleged that the VA’s internal watchdog created to safeguard the medical care provided to former servicemembers routinely plays down the impact of treatment errors and appointment delays.

U.S. Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner, in a letter to President Obama, said the VA Office of the Medical Inspector has repeatedly undermined legitimate whistleblowers by confirming their allegations of wrongdoing, only to then dismiss them as having no impact on patient care.

If she’s right — and she’s got no reason to paint a false picture — then the VA has a serious culture problem. If the agency’s own watchdog has been corrupted, then the system itself is likely to be corrupt.

Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said he accepted Ms. Lerner’s report along with some recommendations she made. But are they enough?

“I am deeply disappointed not only in the substantiation of allegations raised by whistleblowers, but also in the failures within VA to take whistleblower complaints seriously,” Mr. Gibson said.

In an internal message to the VA’s 341,000 staff, Mr. Gibson promised protection for those who reported misdeeds in agency operations. “Relatively simple issues that front-line staff may be aware of can grow into significantly larger problems if left unresolved,” Mr. Gibson said. “In the most serious cases, these problems can lead to and encourage improper and unethical actions.”

And that’s how the VA has apparently been corrupted. Front-line staffers would blow the whistle on patient care concerns or other matters. But instead of tackling these issues, management would put up a false front that all was well.

That’s part of the problem with some government agencies. There’s too little transparency and accountability. Since costs are automatically passed to U.S. taxpayers, the status quo reigns year after year. Operations that would not be tolerated at locally operated health-care facilities became the norm at some VA centers. That’s why the VA may need serious reform — including the possibility of farming out some VA services to other providers.

The special counsel’s allegations are the latest blow to the VA. It was rocked this spring by revelations that some employees doctored records to make appointment wait-times appear far shorter than they really were. Meanwhile, some VA officials earned bonuses for their creative bookkeeping, while some vets suffered. Even died.

The scandal forced then-Secretary Eric Shinseki and other top VA officials to resign. Yet this may be a situation where problems are so deep that cutting off the head isn’t enough.

“There are many instances where there have been whistleblowers that have resulted in investigations,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a member of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said Sunday. “We have no idea if anything has come from those investigations or reports.”

That’s pathetic. And intolerable.

What matters is providing quality care for America’s veterans, not cushy careers for those who oversee the VA.